The new Mitt Romney captivates Iowa crowd with story about Navy SEAL

The Romney family, with son Tagg far right

The first evidence on the campaign trail of the new Mitt Romney – the one quietly shaped by his wife, Ann, and oldest son, Tagg – came today in Iowa when the candidate showed an ability to go from funny to deadly serious in a way that the pre-debate Mitt would never have pulled off.

The Republican nominee told the crowd a funny story about a Christmas party he and his wife attended in California a few years ago and then he pivoted to talk about someone he met at the festive event, Glen Doherty. Romney told the audience that he and Doherty struck up quite a conversation, talking about skiing, Doherty’s home state of Massachusetts, and the young man’s trips to the Mideast as a security specialist.

Then the candidate, choking up, said this: "You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11th."

The audience responded with loud gasps.

The Romney campaign said earlier today that Romney just recently learned that the Doherty he met was the same man who was listed as one of the four killed in attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Earlier in the speech, the GOP nominee discussed his work as a part-time Mormon pastor and tenderly talked about a 14-year-old boy suffering from terminal leukemia that he befriended.

Prior to today, Romney had never publicly mentioned his connection to Doherty and I believe the only public reference to the young boy came at a pre-prime time portion of the Republican convention in August when the boy’s mother took the stage to tell the story.

The reason for this new Mitt? According to an in depth, insider report on Politico’s website, Ann and Tagg have quietly emerged as key advisers to the campaign after the family revolted against the way Romney was being portrayed in the press. The first evidence of the change came in last week’s debate and it appears the campaign is determined to head toward the finish line maintaining a moderate, likeable image for the candidate

Here’s the meat of the Politico story:

“What followed was a family intervention. The candidate’s family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee — a ‘let Mitt be Mitt’ approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew.

“Chief strategist Stuart Stevens — whom the family held responsible for allowing Romney’s personal side to be obscured by an anti-Obama economic message — has seen his once wide-ranging portfolio “fenced in” to mainly the debates, and the television advertising that is his primary expertise, according to campaign officials. Tagg Romney, channeling his mother’s wishes, is taking a much more active role in how the campaign is run.”